British Soldiers Contaminated with DU

The Sunday Mirror reported (30/11/2003) that five British Soldiers have so far tested positive for depleted uranium contamination while fighting in Iraq. They were all believed to have been in vehicles hit by DU shells in two 'friendly fire' attacks. They now face the possibility of developing cancer or other diseases.

Although these are the first soldiers to have tested positive we can expect many more as most soldiers have not so far returned and many are still facing armed combat. Most worrying of all, as reported in the last CADU News, is that the tests being offered to soldiers returning from this attack are not accurate and are capable of giving a negative result when in fact contamination has occurred. Scandalously the MoD has developed an accurate test in cooperation with Leicester University but is not offering this test to soldiers from the 2003 conflict. Instead it will only be made available to veterans of the 1991 Gulf War.

Given the very real risk to all soldiers and the necessity of testing all returning soldiers it must be asked why continue to use these weapons at all?

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